• Advanced Photonics
  • Vol. 5, Issue 1, 015001 (2023)
Yijie Shen1、*, Bingshi Yu2, Haijun Wu2, Chunyu Li2, Zhihan Zhu2、*, and Anatoly V. Zayats3、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1University of Southampton, Optoelectronics Research Centre and Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, Southampton, United Kingdom
  • 2Harbin University of Science and Technology, Wang Da-Heng Center, Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Quantum Control, Harbin, China
  • 3King’s College London, London Centre for Nanotechnology, Department of Physics, London, United Kingdom
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    DOI: 10.1117/1.AP.5.1.015001 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Yijie Shen, Bingshi Yu, Haijun Wu, Chunyu Li, Zhihan Zhu, Anatoly V. Zayats. Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions[J]. Advanced Photonics, 2023, 5(1): 015001 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Structured light fields embody strong spatial variations of polarization, phase, and amplitude. Understanding, characterization, and exploitation of such fields can be achieved through their topological properties. Three-dimensional (3D) topological solitons, such as hopfions, are 3D localized continuous field configurations with nontrivial particle-like structures that exhibit a host of important topologically protected properties. Here, we propose and demonstrate photonic counterparts of hopfions with exact characteristics of Hopf fibration, Hopf index, and Hopf mapping from real-space vector beams to homotopic hyperspheres representing polarization states. We experimentally generate photonic hopfions with on-demand high-order Hopf indices and independently controlled topological textures, including Néel-, Bloch-, and antiskyrmionic types. We also demonstrate a robust free-space transport of photonic hopfions, thus showing the potential of hopfions for developing optical topological informatics and communications.
    Supplementary Materials
    Yijie Shen, Bingshi Yu, Haijun Wu, Chunyu Li, Zhihan Zhu, Anatoly V. Zayats. Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions[J]. Advanced Photonics, 2023, 5(1): 015001
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